Five Years at eRay

This summer, I completed five years at eRay. As I approach the significant milestone of completing five years with this organization, I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude and reflection. These past five years have been a journey of growth, learning, and meaningful experiences that have shaped not only my career but also my perspective on work and life. As I look back on the challenges I’ve overcome, the achievements I’ve celebrated, and the invaluable relationships I’ve built, I am reminded of the incredible support and camaraderie that has been a constant. I write this blog as I take a walk down memory lane and share the pivotal moments that have shaped not only my career but also my personal development.

eRay a brief Introduction

eRay Europa GmbH, also known as e.Ray, is a startup based in Darmstadt that is dedicated to making the world a better place to live. The company engages in various climate change mitigation activities, with a primary focus on smart water solutions, showcasing its core as a tech company. It started as a research project, where the goal was to provide off-grid power supply. It slowly shifted its focus from just power to an IoT platform enabler. The company that started as a spin-off from TU-Darmstadt is now one of the most promising water startups in Germany.

How did it start?

My journey with eRay had an interesting start. It all began In the Summer of 2018 when I was in the second semester of my Master’s studies. I was very active socially and used to attend a lot of events, meetups and conferences. In one such event, I was talking to a guy about the minor project I was involved in. It was a part of my Master’s studies and involved working with GNSS sensors. The person pointed me towards another guy who was working with a similar chip. This other guy was Kedar from e.Ray. After talking for some time, I found the project fascinating and asked directly if they could offer me an internship. I didn’t realise that this small conversation was the beginning of a long journey together. Here I am five years later, enjoying my journey with e.Ray towards a sustainable future.

What do we do?

I am often asked what exactly we do? The easiest answer to this is we help communities develop climate action strategies. We use technology as a tool and develop a lot of things related to the Internet of Things. Our main product now is WAMO. WAMO, short for Water Monitor, is a self-sustainable movable floating platform with a GNSS receiver connected to it, which allows us to calculate the water level. We have other sensors connected to it, which allows us to calculate various other parameters such as pH, Water Temperature, and Turbidity. detect With the help of the latest telemetry technologies such as LTE, Satcom, LoRaWAN and our algorithms, we are able to provide information to the people. We aim to detect the algal boom, a leading cause of methane emission and predict floods which take thousands of lives every year. Our IoT solutions helps the stakeholders make data-backed decisions. The idea is not to make systems smart but the people who use the systems smarter.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and all work and no fun makes any team a sad team. That’s why at e.Ray, we also do fun activities together outside of work. We participate in events, we barbecue, we do excursions. In short, we enjoy what we do.

Summarizing the Journey in Key Moments

In 2018, when I joined eRay as a working student, I had very little hands-on experience working with electronic devices. I was under-confident and lacked self-belief. I was always afraid of failure. My teammates showed me what it means to trust each other. So I learned. From basic soldering to handling complex sensor fusion, whatever little technical prowess I have, a lot of its credit goes to the work environment of e.Ray.

But things have not always been very smooth. We hit rock bottom in 2020. The situation became so bad that we were on the verge of insolvency. Government stimulus and the sheer desire to survive helped us come out of this abyss. Now we are stronger than ever.

In 2021, we won the Galileo Masters. Then, we got invited by the Darmstadt City authority to demonstrate a continuous water monitoring tool. This year, we won a project from the European Space Agency, and soon, we will be working with the city of Darmstadt on the Schlaueswasser(Smart Water) Project. Hopefully, in the near future, we will have the opportunity to work with other municipalities, such as Lübeck, for smart water solutions.

What does the future have in store?

Success can be measured on many scales, and every person has a different perspective on it. In the last five years at e.Ray, I met a lot of interesting people, and some of them have become friends for life. This short period has been full of ups and downs, but in the end, we always came out of it stronger, and I guess that’s what life is all about. This summer marks the beginning of a new phase for the team. We are stronger than ever, and together we will make a better tomorrow.

Greenspeed,
Jeet